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Fire alarm: Building boom

Despite tax increases and service cuts forced on nearly every level of government, the super sizing of LI firehouses has continued unabated

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | STAFF WRITER

November 14, 2005

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The Jericho Fire Department was chronically short of firefighters -- so short, it had to elect a chief who lived in a different community, stretched its membership rules to take 17-year-olds and send its building custodians out on fire and rescue calls.

The solution? Build a new 33,200-square-foot headquarters with a gym, sun deck, sauna and library that commissioners hope will attract new volunteers and entice more of the members to hang around the firehouse for calls.

The $11 million, three-story building now is going up on Route 106/107, across the street from the current 24,000-square-foot headquarters, which, while it could use a new roof and fixtures, also has a spacious bar and recreation room, meeting hall large enough to host hundreds of guests, and four truck bays filled with state-of-the-art equipment.

"The board is hopeful that these improvements will translate into improved response times," according to a statement by Jericho's elected commissioners when the building was approved. The old one will serve as a maintenance building.

Many neighborhood residents say the new building is too tall and too big for the lot, and records show that if it were not a firehouse, it would violate town zoning laws. The residents say that the district made it difficult for them to gather details about the new building.

"I'm the first to say, 'Go for it,' if it is going to save lives," said Doreen Leibowitz, whose backyard abuts the site. "But why does it have to be this humongous thing?"

Building boom

For more than 15 years -- in Jericho, Hicksville, Coram, Miller Place and dozens of communities in between -- a building boom has swept Long Island fire agencies. Whether in good economic times or bad, the supersizing of Long Island firehouses has continued unabated.

Since 1995, new headquarters have been built in at least 10 Long Island communities. Fire headquarters have undergone dramatic expansions in at least 40 other places, frequently doubling the size of the buildings.

Medford replaced its 8,000-square-foot headquarters with one that has more than 30,000 square feet; North Patchogue traded up from 9,000 to more than 26,000; and Garden City Park is now replacing its 6,500-square-foot main firehouse with one that measures 24,500.

At least a dozen new substations and 15 buildings for administration, training, dispatch and other functions have been built. Another 18 substation expansions are under way or recently completed, and dozens of other building projects are in the planning stages.

There are now 386 fire stations and 104 other fire-related buildings on Long Island.

And the cost of projects is rising quickly.

The $3.8 million borrowed by the Greenlawn Fire District in 1994 to rebuild its headquarters was then the largest bond floated by any fire district in the state. Thursday, Setauket fire officials are asking voters to support a $17.5 million bond issue to replace their 14,436-square-foot headquarters with a new one that will be more than twice as big at 38,000 square feet.

"The general rule of anything in the fire service is that things tend to get bigger over time," said Charles Jennings, a former volunteer firefighter who teaches fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "There is some uniqueness to Long Island in terms of the sheer scope and magnitude and size of the facilities. Everything is a little bigger on Long Island."

Newer firehouses often come with hotel-sized kitchens with walk-in refrigerators, gyms, locker rooms and oak-paneled lounges with open-tap bars, big-screen televisions, pool tables, pinball machines and video games.

Some fire officials acknowledge they are using the one resource they have plenty of -- money -- to keep their members happy at the firehouse and to bring in new volunteers.

"If you want to take a horse and carriage, you've got to feed the horse a little something," said Hicksville Commissioner Robert Dwyer, explaining to residents in 2003 why his district wants to expand one substation's bar area, gym and meeting rooms at a cost now estimated at $5.2 million. He said it didn't measure up to the district's other substations.

"Actually, I'm embarrassed," he said. "We think the Ronald Avenue station should look as nice as the others."

Supersizing skepticism